Only fraction of subscribers walk away after HBO axe, TrueVisions says
ONLY 500 of the 300,000 TrueVisions premium subscribers affected by the cancellation of six HBO channels have ended their contracts, representing just 0.16 per cent of the company’s Gold and Platinum package subscribers, the pay-TV operator said.
Birathorn Kasemsri Na Ayudhaya, chief content and media officer at True Corporation, said yesterday that True Visions’ customer contact centre has received some 5,000 calls since January 1 from customers complaining about the six HBO channels being dropped from its cable and satellite TV network.
The channels are HBO HD, HBO Hits, HBO Signature, HBO Family, Red by HBO and Cinemax.
“Judging from this, we assume there has been little impact on our existing customers because they find our remedial measures quite acceptable,” Birathorn said.
Under this remedial plan, subscribers of Gold, Super Family, Sport Family and Happy Family packages will be upgraded to the next level for a month, while those on a Platinum package will get 1,000 reward points on the True Black Card.
TrueVisions also added seven new channels, namely Warner TV, Paramount Channel HD, Celestial Classic Movies, Food Network, Fox Action Movies HD, Sony Channel and True Film HD 2 immediately after HBO’s feeds ended on January 1.
The firm is also allowing customers who have subscribed to TrueVisions’ pay-TV service for less than six months to either end their contract or downgrade their package. Subscribers with six-month long packages who want to end their contract will be refunded for the outstanding period.
Meanwhile, Birathorn said “Fox Action Movies HD” has become the most watched channel on True Visions, while the other new channels are also performing very well by audience rating.
In his first public appearance , comments since the HBO channels were dropped, the TrueVisions content chief explained to the media why his company decided to drop all feeds from HBO Asia, even though HBO HD was a No 1 channel and key sales driver for TrueVisions for many years.
“We cannot deny that HBO HD generated a high rating for TrueVisions, but the other movie channels that were bundled under the same contract were far less popular,” he said.
Therefore, TrueVisions sought to buy rights to broadcast the HBO HD channel alone, but HBO Asia refused, saying it does not sell the channels separately.
